What the Characters are Saying

I'm spending most of the day helping Lana with an art show today so here's a quick post. I should get back to some writing stuff early next week.

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What the Characters in Gramlich’s books are saying about him and his work.

Cold in the Light:

“A wild, rollicking ride. I’m still not sure I got out alive.” --Truman Maclang, Deerhaven Deputy Sheriff.

“A celebration of terror. Much enjoyed.” --Kargen, Villain.

“I thought my part could have been bigger.” -- Tip Baldridge, teenager.


Swords of Talera

“Ruenn Maclang is not bad. For a human. But that Gramlich guy who is claiming he wrote a book about Talera is an absolute kook.” --Jask, High-council of the Klar.

“Gramlich, I’ve seen Ruenn Maclang. I know Ruenn Maclang. Believe me, Gramlich, you’re no Ruenn Maclang.” – Rannon, love interest and swordswoman.


Wings Over Talera

“No comment!” –Vohanna, evil incarnate

“I tell you I’m in there. I’m in there.” --Chalathar, once and future god.


Witch of Talera

“Gramlich is misunderstood. He tried to publish this series as a memoir but the publisher wanted him to call it fiction and he accidentally listened. He never imagined so many twos of people would read it and by that time it was too late to let everyone know that it was really true.” --Ahrethane, Gramlich’s secret admirer.

“I told you no *&$#@#%* comment.” Vohanna, still evil.
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Why I won’t be reading James Frey’s Latest

Many of you know that James Frey, the fellow who parlayed a fake memoir into fame and wealth, has a new book out. It's ranked at 33 on Amazon as of this morning, but I won’t be buying or reading it, even though Frey admits up front this time that it’s fiction. (Of course, once he gained fame under false pretenses he didn’t need to lie to sell another book.)

I won’t be buying this new one, or his older ones, or any that he might write in the future. And I’ll tell you why. It’s not because I know him to be a bad writer, although the sample of his new book that I found on Amazon was written, deliberately perhaps, in an illiterate style. (Here’s a sample sentence: “As he grew up he didn’t fit in with any of the other Cuban boys in his neighborhood they idolized boxers and baseball players he couldn’t have cared less”). It’s not that I feel any personal animosity against the fellow. No, the reason is because I have a limited book buying budget, and I’m just not going to put a penny in the pocket of someone who—-in my opinion—-has shown a lack of respect for readers and other writers across the board. This would be true even if his story was magnificent, which, from the sample, it certainly is not.

There are too many other talented writers with great stories who have labored long and honorably in the world of publishing only to receive pittances for their efforts, or even to be passed over time and time again for the celebrity author or the latest big thing (scandal). And there are plenty of already famous writers who have earned every accolade they’ve garnered. These are writers who have always told us the truth, who have never deliberately compromised their morals. Every nickel that I spend on books will go to such writers. Every penny.

Honor and integrity are not dead words, not outmoded concepts. I will support those who understand this.

Cowboy and Lady

Seems like quite a few folks have been posting plays lately so here is my entry. I call it: How a Cowboy Picks up a Lady: A Play.

Cowboy: *Strides up to a lovely gal a sittin’ at the bar sipping a Michelob. He hesitates when he sees the fancy beer she is drinking but finds her just too beayootiful in her white and black cowgirl skirt and her red satiny shirt with the shiny diamond shaped mother-of-pearl buttons. He decides to try his best line:*

“Why yo is jes as hot as a ten dollar pistol sittin’ there, Baby. What say we blow this gin joint and do us a little moonlit two steppin?”

Lady: *Is taken aback at his manly appearance and the very large hat he wears, but is impressed with his courtly manners. And with the spurs a jingling on his bootheels.*

“I would love to, “ she coos, eyelashes all a twitter.

Cowboy: *Sweeps her off her white booted feet, and carries her out to his ‘pick up,’ tucking her into the passenger seat where the smell of cedar from his tree odor thingie is brisk and cool as a mint julep in July. Climbs up the steps into the other side and starts the truck up with a roar.*

"LET'S TAKE A RIDE OUT TO WHERE THEY WATCH THE SUBMARINE RACES," he shouts over the booming growl of the big diesel engine on his Dodge RAM pickemup.

Lady: “Cedar. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.” *Smiles purdy*

Cowboy: *Kicks the big V-16 in low gear and goes a squalling out of the parking lot on to the black top, crushing discarded beer cans and furrin imports alike. Hits cruising speed about 85 and sets back against the cushioned captain's seat, dropping a big hairy hand to the lady’s dainty lil knee under her cowgirl skirt.*

Lady: *Drops her own dainty lil hand to just above his knee, then scootches closer, purring.*

Cowboy: *Swallows his chaw. gulps, recovers.*

"Why lordy be, missy, I sure am a glad you ain't skittish as some of these here city gals one meets at them there disco places. Last lil gal I gave a ride too done plastered my poor achin head with wimin's libber rights nonsense." *Peers at her.* "You ain't no wimin's libber is ya?"

Lady: *Peers back.* "Not at the moment, no."

Cowboy: *Licks his lips, quickly pushes in a tape that plays Hank Williams cause he knows how sexy wimin gets to feelin’ alistenin to old Hank sing. He slides his arm across the back of the seat and lets his hand touch the length of her big hairdo, lightly tangling his fingers through her hair-sprayed, steel-link tresses.*

“Now you jes lean on back against the naughahyde seats, lil lady and let ole Charlie Bob do the drivin’”

Lady: “Yo’re the man, Lover.”

Cowboy: *He listens to purring, both of the engine and the lady, and he knows he has done it just right.*

“Gonna get lucky tonight, ole cuss,” he murmurs softly to himself. “Gonna get lucky tonight.”

NOTE: No cowboys or ladies were harmed in the making of this play.

In the Courts of the Crimson Kings

I just finished a very good book by S. M. Stirling called In the Courts of the Crimson Kings. This is actually a newly released Sword and Planet book which basically reprises ERB's A Princess of Mars, although greatly updated for modern audiences. I really liked this a lot. The characters were very well developed and the Martian civilization was brought to life in great detail, all the way down to a consistent presentation of the Martian language. I was quite sad to see this one end, and that doesn't happen these days too much.

In writing news, here's the "What Has Gone Before" section of my new Taleran book. So far I'm only about 2,000 words into the work but I'm beginning to feel it again. And that is fun. However, if you haven't read the previous books and plan to you should not read the section below. So therefore:

SPOILER ALERT

WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

Ruenn Maclang was born and grew to manhood on Earth. On the planet of Talera, he was reborn a swordsman, and a leader of warriors. Through three volumes, Ruenn fought his way, Swords of Talera, Wings Over Talera, and Witch of Talera. He began as a man lost and alone on an alien world of death and beauty, but he found his path. He found friends who fought with him, and for him, and he found a woman to love. That woman was Rannon, a Princess who became a Queen of the island kingdom of Nyshphal after her father was murdered.

Ruenn and Rannon married in a bloody throne room after a desperate battle and narrow victory against the sorceress Vohanna and her allies, allies that included both Rannon’s brother, and Ruenn’s. But though the Witch herself was defeated, the Witch’s war is not yet over. Rannon’s air-fleet lies devastated; her army is nearly bled white. Nyshphal’s remaining enemies are gathered in fire and steel. Amid the chaos appears a new threat, an apparition from the past that warns of the future—honor and love can be corrupted by hate.

And now, Ghosts of Talera.

Quirks

I’ve been tagged for the Six Quirks about me meme by Lisa over at Eudaemonia. I’ve given away quite a few of my weirdities before, including my lack of a sense of smell, but let’s see if I can find a few more to post.

First the Rules:
Link the person who tagged you.
Mention the rules in your blog.
Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
Tag 6 bloggers by linking them.
Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

So here are mine, all related to music.

1. There are literally some songs that I dislike so much that I can’t stand listening to them and will instantly punch the button on the radio to change to anything else, including a commercial or white noise. These include “Rock the Casbah,” “Take a Walk on the Wild Side,” and anything by the Police or Sting.

2. Lana teases me a lot for liking “one” song by Michael Jackson, and that song is “Dirty Diana.” I’m sorry, but it rocks. And I’m going to go listen to it now.

3. Most of the time I actually pay no attention to lyrics in music. Lyrics can ruin a song for me but can never save a song that doesn’t have good music. For example, I like the music to “Tube Steak Boogie” by Z. Z. Top but won’t listen to it because the lyrics irritate me so much. I’m the same way with “The Boys are Back in Town.” There is no song that I’ll listen to just for the lyrics. But there are some good tunes that actually seem to be enhanced by good lyrics, such as “Ava Adore” by the Smashing Pumpkins.

4. Related to number 3 above, I buy a fair amount of music by bands that don’t sing in English. These included Warlock and Loudness in the old days, and Rammstein today. I especially like the lyrics better when they’re in German. German is the right language for heavy metal.

5. The right music will literally cause horripilation across my scalp and down my neck. The first song to ever do this to me was “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and The Shondells, when I was about 13. One that still does is “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zepplin. “Simple Man” and “Saturday Night Special” by Lynyrd Skynyrd also do it.

6. Black Sabbath is the father/founder band of heavy metal because they were the first band to be all metal all the time. There is no arguing this point, and the original Sabbath lineup is still the greatest rock band of all time.

7. Bonus: The song that best combines incredible music and incredible lyrics is “Bullet the Blue Sky” by U2. The lyrics make up the best poem in rock music. (However, I sure do like the Sepultura version.)

I’m breaking the rules by not tagging anyone.

Ghosts of Talera?

Now that grades are in my mind has finally been able to turn toward writing, but I’m largely in the pre-writing phase at the moment. I’ve pretty much committed myself to writing a new Taleran book and so for the last couple of days I’ve been running over scenarios and plans and titles in my mind. Thinking back to the original trilogy of books there is one obvious setup for a second trilogy. I won’t give it away here, though. And there are a few items from the first trilogy left over that have to be dealt with. I have the opening for the new book laid out and already know the basics of what I want to work toward. But, for me, titles are important and I’ve been mulling this one over a lot. I don’t know if I’ll actually write a second trilogy, and any book I do will be a complete story in and of itself, but I would like to have the basic titles for a possible trilogy laid out now because the titles help me organize my plotting.

I had originally thought that I’d call book four Warlord of Talera but thinking about the possible sequence of stories I might tell I’ve decided that would be appropriate for a possible end book in a trilogy. Right now I’m thinking, Ghosts of Talera, Gods of Talera and Warlord of Talera . I’m thinking “Ghosts” because there will be an apparent one, if not a real one, in the new book. Another name I’d considered for this book is Assassin of Talera because it will involve one of those as well. For some reason, though, “Assassin” doesn’t light my fire and “Ghosts” seems more evocative. Mostly I’m thinking aloud here, but, as always, feel free to share your opinions.

In other news, we were at our local Flatwoods preserve today and the Pitcher Plants are out in full force. We also saw a Barred Owl, which was a wonderful experience. I’m sure Lana will post a pic of it on her blog soon.

Comic Books

I was in the comic book store the other day, my first time in probably twelve years, to order Femme Noir by Christopher Mills. While there I checked out some of the other offerings and bought a few. I was never a big comic book fan. As a teenager I read some, but probably never had more than 100 or so, and these were mostly Fantastic Four, Spiderman, and one or two war comics like Sgt. Rock and Ghost Tank. I also had a horror western one called Jonah Hex.

Later, when I first joined the Robert E. Howard group, REHupa, I bought a number of the Howard related comics like Conan and Kull. That was in the early 90s but that phase didn’t last long. Having been weaned on books, I always found reading comics rather irritating, frankly. You’d settle down for a read, and be done almost instantly. Five minutes tops for most comics. I quickly found the only way to enjoy them was to collect 5 to 10 issues and then read them all at one sitting.

This time I bought a few of the new Dark Horse Conan comics, and read them back to back, and a couple of “graphic novels,” which are essentially longer comics that give you a bit more of a satisfying read. For one of the very few times in my life I bought something primarily for its cover. It seems that there are a variety of Frank Frazetta comics coming out and I’ve always enjoyed Frazetta’s art work, particularly the stuff he did for the Karl Edward Wagner Kane paperbacks and the Death Dealer paperbacks. I picked up a comic with one of his “Kane” covers called Dark Kingdom, part 1. The story did not involve Kane, however, but a character named Red Morden. The tale itself was very typical but the art was nice.

I did, however, find a nice surprise in the store, a Jonah Hex: Origins graphic novel. This really took me back and I enjoyed it quite a bit since there was a meaty story to the work. How about you? Any comic book dinks out there? Have comics been at all an influence on your writing? I would generally say that they haven’t influenced my own work at all, most likely because of my limited exposure to them during my formative years.